Thousands of people celebrated disability pride in New York City on Sunday
Mayor Bill de Blasio dubbed July 'disability pride month' in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The parade, which stretched from Madison Square Park to Union Square, is scheduled to be an annual event
The closest subway station to the start of the parade at Madison Square Park, however, lacked wheelchair access

By Kelly Mclaughlin For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

Published: 11:46 EST, 12 July 2015 | Updated: 18:30 EST, 12 July 2015
Thousands of people marched through the streets of New York for the city's first Disability Pride Parade on Sunday.

People in wheelchairs and with guide dogs and parents carrying their disabled children marched during a hot day through the center of Manhattan after Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off the event.

The event, subtitled 'Inclusion, Awareness, Visibility' saw people carrying signs of support and asking for better access to public transport and housing.
De Blasio said July was 'disability pride month' in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and that he was proud of the city being a national leader in supporting rights for disabled people.

The parade, organized by the city, is now scheduled to be an annual event. Its route started at Manhattan's Madison Square Park and went along Broadway to Union Square Park.

The closest subway station to this year's parade however, does not feature an elevator system to accommodate wheelchairs.

'I would say (it's) discriminating, in a way. We're celebrating access,' Dustin Jones, a wheelchair-bound disability rights activist who still found a way to participate in the parade, told New York Daily News.
The nearest subway stations for the parade were at 34th Street-Herald Square or at the end of the parade at 14th Street. MTA did, however, set up pickup and dropoff locations for Access-A-Ride.

Though the lack of elevators in the nearest subway station could have been a potential hindrance, Disability Pride NYC executive director Michael Schweinsburg said it didn't appear to be an issue.

'Nobody has brought up any objection to the proximity of elevator subway stations to the event itself,' he told the Daily News before the parade.

And still, thousands of people still showed up to celebrate disability pride.

'Disabled and proud,' said a sign carried by a woman in a wheelchair.
A man carried another sign reading: 'Just because I can't speak doesn't mean I don't have a lot to say.'

Other signs demanded police stop killing disabled people, an issue recently in the spotlight in the country after police arrests ended in disabled peoples' deaths.

'It's pretty powerful because it's makes you realize your struggles are not yours,' parade participant Anomie Fatale, who was riding a scooter, told WCBS. 'It's a bigger problem that you can work through all together.'

The city has planned a month-long series of events relating to New Yorkers with disabilities, including an exhibit at the Brooklyn Historical Society titled 'Gaining Access: The New York City Disability Rights Movement'.